Contact PD/PI: Sinoway, Lawrence Isaac NRSA-Training-001 (009) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT ? NRSA TRAINING CORE Translation of promising scientific discoveries into effective clinical interventions and best practices to improve public health is a complex process that transcends traditional scientific disciplines. We propose a multi-level training program in clinical and translational science designed to flexibly adapt to the early career education needs and career interests of predoctoral students from diverse disciplines including biomedical science, medicine, nursing, social science, and engineering. We propose innovative training approaches to instill the translational workforce with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes for multidisciplinary team-based science. The Penn State program will include short-term training, year-off training for medical students leading to a Master's degree in Public Health Sciences, year-long graduate credit certificate training, and a novel dual-title PhD in clinical and translational science. We plan to enroll 16 students each year in our short-term program and 6 students each year in one of the longer-term training programs. Given the emerging strengths of the Penn State Institute and challenges representing areas for growth and innovation, our overarching goal is to implement a rigorous educational program in clinical and translational science that grows our community of trainees and can serve as a model program for the CTSA Consortium. We propose translational science education and research training that is customized to the career goals and needs of individual trainees and a framework of core competencies to ensure a knowledgeable and skilled workforce. Programmatic strengths include careful tracking, evaluation, and dissemination of best practices. Our aims are: Aim 1: Expand the community of engaged, clinical and translational trainees at Penn State by increasing the number and disciplinary range of programs from which trainees are drawn, increasing the diversity of trainees in terms of race/ethnicity, and collaborating with other Penn State T32 and K programs. Aim 2: Provide a range of individualized translational science educational opportunities by tailoring education to prior training and career level, current research training goals and career trajectory, as well as by enhancing multidisciplinary research opportunities and collaborative skills. Aim 3: Develop, test, implement, and disseminate innovative education, trainee, and mentor metrics and evaluation tools, including multi-level measures and innovative evaluation metrics for trainees, mentors, and programs, and a customized trainee tracking software system. We will disseminate this tracking and evaluation system resource to the CTSA Consortium for enhanced capacity and evidence-based training improvement. Building on a long history of successful training in clinical and translational research at Penn State, our highly flexible training program will cultivate an exceptional environment in which individual trainees can create a strong foundation of unique skills and knowledge to launch productive careers as translational scientists.